Epilogue
Aurelia soared smoothly through the air, her back tight against Danton’s chest as Echo’s wings easily kept them both aloft. She twisted to look downward, and Danton’s hands tightened around her waist.
“Look!” She pointed at the smaller figure circling below them. “She’s doing so well!”
“She should grow large enough for you to ride soon,” Danton told her, and Aurelia gave a small cheer. His head dipped toward her neck, pressing a kiss against the sensitive skin there. “But please note my official protest. I like having you right here.”
She laughed. “Even when I can ride Bramble, we can still go on flights on Echo together sometimes. But if we each have our own mount, we’ll be able to go much further—even as far as the capital, perhaps.”
“I suppose that would be convenient on occasion,” he conceded, although the arms around her waist didn’t loosen.
After their return to the interrupted house party, the post had brought two important letters from the capital.
The first carried the royal seal and contained the news that every pegasus in the royal herd was on the road to recovery.
And as a result, Danton now had royal approval to host a pegasus herd at Windward.
If the king was suspicious about Danton’s apparent immediate bond with Echo, he seemed willing to overlook it in his delight at his herd’s recovery.
The second letter had come from Aurelia’s father, giving his enthusiastic approval of their betrothal—an endorsement of the permission already extended by Aurelia’s mother.
The extra note scribbled at the bottom of the page by Alanna had conveyed that she was utterly shocked and had also known it the whole time.
And also that she would be joining them at Windward as quickly as she could harass their poor father into getting her there.
Which meant she could arrive at any minute.
Phoebe had been even more delighted than Aurelia’s family. As much as she loved her older brother, she had apparently always longed for a sister. Any fears Aurelia might have felt that Phoebe would worry about Aurelia displacing her were dispelled with Phoebe’s first enthusiastic hug.
Danton, meanwhile, was already busy with plans for the stables he intended to build and the herd he hoped to grow.
Echo could apparently be relied on to speak to one of Windward’s grooms whenever Danton was absent, and Danton was secretly hoping that the lad might end up bonding with one of the mares Danton hoped to bring to Windward.
All in all, they were happy plans and seemed to occupy whatever moments he didn’t spend with Aurelia.
She sank against him with a contented sigh. She had never dreamed her visit to the capital could end in such joy. At Windward, she would have books, and a pegasus herd, and as many kisses as she could desire with the most enticing, stimulating, and entertaining man she had ever met.
And she wouldn’t even have to worry about the eyes of polite society. Tucked away against the mountains, their new life would unfold far from any watching crowd.
She knew they would have to visit the capital sometimes, of course, but social functions no longer felt daunting in the way they once had.
With Danton at her side, maybe she could even grow to enjoy them.
She had found her place and the person she belonged beside, and everything looked different as a result.
But she would keep a book in her bag, just in case. She was still a bookworm, after all.